Increased levels of circulating MMP3 correlate with severe rejection in face transplantation

Sci Rep. 2018 Oct 8;8(1):14915. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-33272-7.

Abstract

Face transplantation is a viable treatment option for carefully selected patients with devastating injuries to the face. However, acute rejection episodes occur in more than 80% of recipients in the first postoperative year. Unfortunately, neither a correlation between histological grades of rejection and anti-rejection treatment nor systemic surrogate markers of rejection in face transplantation are established in clinical routine. Therefore, we utilized next generation aptamer-based SOMAscan proteomics platform for non-invasive rejection biomarker discovery. Longitudinal serum samples from face transplant recipients with long-term follow-up were included in this study. From the 1,310 proteins analyzed by SOMAscan, a 5-protein signature (MMP3, ACY1, IL1R2, SERPINA4, CPB2) was able to discriminate severe rejection from both no-rejection and nonsevere rejection samples. Technical validation on ELISA platform showed high correlation with the SOMAscan data for the MMP3 protein (rs = 0.99). Additionally, MMP3 levels were significantly increased during severe rejection as compared to no-rejection (p = 0.0009) and nonsevere rejection (p = 0.0173) episodes. Pathway analyses revealed significant activation of the metallopeptidase activity during severe face transplant rejection. This pilot study demonstrates the feasibility of SOMAscan to identify non-invasive candidate biomarkers of rejection in face transplantation. Further validation in a larger independent patient cohort is needed.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Acute Disease
  • Adult
  • Biomarkers / blood
  • Biopsy
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Facial Transplantation / adverse effects*
  • Female
  • Graft Rejection / blood*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Matrix Metalloproteinase 3 / blood*
  • Middle Aged
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Up-Regulation

Substances

  • Biomarkers
  • MMP3 protein, human
  • Matrix Metalloproteinase 3